What Expats Are Looking For On The Swiss Housing Market

(MENAFN- Swissinfo) Where do labour migrants and expats want to live, and what do they expect from their housing? A new study sheds light on this, and on the impact they have on rents and house prices in Switzerland. This content was published on September 4, 2025 - 09:00 8 minutes

I write about demographic developments, societal trends and debates in Switzerland. I joined SWI swissinfo after 15 years at a local newspaper in Zurich.

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Rents, single-family homes, and owner-occupied flats: wherever you look, prices on the Swiss property market have for years been heading in just one direction: upwards . The housing shortage is also getting worse .

One of the drivers behind this trend is immigration. Over the past 25 years, Switzerland's population has grown from 7.2 million to over nine million, mainly as a result of labour migration. Net immigration has been particularly high so far this decade, with the arrival of refugees from Ukraine.

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This has clear repercussions on the political debate in Switzerland. Fear of further growing pains is shaping negotiations on new bilateral agreements with the EU . Yet the immigration of recent years is primarily self-inflicted.

Switzerland needs skilled labour and it can find it just across its borders. In 2024, two out of every three newly created jobs went to people from abroad, especially neighbouring countries. Germany, France and Italy alone account for almost 40% of net immigration.

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A recent study now helps feed objective data into this emotionally charged debate. Conducted by consulting firm Wüest Partner, it sheds light on the behaviour of newcomers from abroad on the Swiss property market and what impact they really have on rents and prices.

Here is an overview of the key points.

City, countryside or suburbs: where do migrants prefer to live?

People moving to Switzerland from abroad favour urban areas, according to Wüest Partner. Only a third of this group would consider moving to the countryside, compared to 40% of Swiss nationals. The big cities, meanwhile, are equally popular with both groups. Immigrants, however, are more likely to opt for peri-urban agglomerations, that is, the interface between rural and urban environments, as well as small and medium-sized towns. This is because these areas are cheaper but still well connected.

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A comparison of the different cantons shows that Geneva, Valais, Basel City, Schaffhausen, Neuchâtel and Zurich have above-average international net migration.

It is striking that, despite the housing shortage and high rents, the major hubs of Geneva, Basel City and Zurich attract an above-average number of new arrivals from abroad. Net internal migration in these cities is, however, negative.

Geneva and Zurich, with their international companies, attract many highly qualified workers, explains Robert Weinert, chief analyst at Wüest Partner.“They can afford the high rents,” he says. Internal migration, meanwhile, often has to do with starting a family. People in need of more living space often move to the more affordable surrounding areas.

In terms of internal migration alone, the cantons of Schaffhausen and Fribourg stand out. Significantly more people move to these areas from other parts of Switzerland than move out of them. However, Schaffhausen, unlike Fribourg, is also popular with new residents from abroad.“Rents and home-ownership prices are comparatively affordable in both cantons,” says Weinert. The tax burden is also low by regional standards – especially in canton Fribourg, which is not considered to have low taxes nationwide, but is favourably positioned between the high-tax cantons of Vaud and Bern.

External Content External Content What do newcomers from abroad seek in housing in Switzerland?

Price or rent, living space, comfort and brightness are the top priorities for over 90% of those surveyed by Wüest Partner, regardless of nationality.

Expectations differ, however, when it comes to secondary criteria. Swiss nationals place greater value on sustainability, such as ecological materials or green electricity, and proximity to their social environment.

Immigrants, meanwhile, prioritise close access to the workplace, good car and public transport connections and schools in the neighbourhood.

The differences also reflect the demographic structure of the two groups. Immigrants are more likely to be younger, of working age and have children, which explains why practical criteria prevail, according to Wüest Partner. Swiss households, meanwhile, are on average older and wealthier and place greater emphasis on quality of life and the surroundings.“These trends are also evident among families with children,” says the firm.

Foreigners also change residences more frequently. Thus, in 2023, French nationals living in Switzerland were more than twice as likely to move house than their Swiss counterparts. Immigrants not only leave the country more often, but they also move more frequently within Switzerland, Wüest Partner found.

Immigrants from neighbouring countries record the highest internal mobility, also in terms of the distance covered. As possible reasons for this Wüest Partner cites the overall good job opportunities and the need for more affordable housing, especially after starting a family.

Ability to speak a national language also facilitates mobility for this group. People from Spain, Portugal, Eastern Europe and Turkey prefer to move shorter distances,“presumably to stay close to their social network”, say the authors of the study.

Swiss or foreigners: who consumes more living space per capita?

Foreigners use significantly less living space per capita than Swiss households. While the latter occupy on average 1.9 rooms per person, the figure for foreigners stands at 1.4. The average surface area is thus correspondingly lower.

Possible reasons for this include income disparities, says Weinert, or the higher average number of children among foreign families.“Last but not least, the home ownership rate is higher among the Swiss,” he says.“And in the vast majority of cases, homeowners consume more living space per capita.”

Do expats and labour migrants buy or rent?

In 2023, 44.1% of all-Swiss households were homeowners. In mixed households, the rate was 27.5%, while in foreigner-only households it was only 12.3%.

“Even after several years in Switzerland, the vast majority of immigrants remain renters,” writes Wüest Partner.

Reasons for this are the lower average age, the intention to stay only temporarily and limited financial resources – in particular insufficient inherited capital, which is becoming increasingly important in order to purchase property in Switzerland.

Between 2013 and 2023, the home-ownership rate among Swiss households fell by 0.5 percentage points, and by 1.8 percentage points among foreign households.

External Content How does immigration impact rents and property prices?

Although the majority of immigrants are renters, those with high incomes are increasingly purchasing their own residential property or holiday homes after a few years, according to Wüest Partner.

Because immigration is boosting rental demand, part of the domestic and foreign population is also looking to buy their own home, which indirectly drives the market.

According to Wüest Partner, a population increase of 1% pushes up the price of single-family homes by 0.88 % and owner-occupied flats by 1.37 %. Asking rents would rise by 1% in this same scenario.

The impact on the rental market is thus similar to that on property prices, even though most immigrants are tenants. This, the study's authors suggest, can be attributed to stricter regulation of the rental market, which has a dampening effect on prices.

In conclusion, Wüest Partner stresses that prices are influenced even more strongly by other developments:“For residential property, mortgage rates, economic growth and inflation are decisive; in the rental sector, benchmark interest rate, inflation and vacancy rate are key.”

Edited by Balz Rigendinger. Adapted from German by Julia Bassam/gw

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